ELLIOTT MORRIS – Lost & Found (Dominoes Club DCRCD001)

Lost & FoundAn Anglo-Scot, based in Yorkshire, the soft-voiced Elliott Morris plies a mix of folk and blues that highlight his percussive guitar slapping technique on a collection of originals, collaborations and a couple of traditional reworks. He eases listeners into his debut album, Lost And Found, with the pastoral ambience of ‘Lost’, a brief instrumental etched on acoustic and electric guitars that flows seamlessly into the soothingly sung ‘The End Of The World Blues’, introducing a line-up of backing musicians that include core rhythm section of bassist Bevan Morris and drummer Jack Carrack alongside the latter’s father, Paul, on Hammond, Laura-Beth Salter on mandolin, and fiddle players Innes Watson and Mike Vass, as well as showcasing a bluesy electric guitar solo.

Loosely based on the traditional ‘The Bent Sae Brown’, ‘Sixteen Long Miles’ picks up a shuffling traintime rhythm before suddenly shifting to a slide driven blues boogie reading of the traditional ‘I’m A Stranger’, the lyrics taken from ‘The Strands Of Magilligan’ and ‘The American Stranger’.

‘One More Day’ takes the mood down again for acoustic mid-tempo folksy-pop, the laid back atmosphere continuing through the dreamy summery haze of ‘Sirens’ with its slow waltz shanty melody feel subtly underpinned by Carrack’s Hammond.

The second half of the album title, another instrumental, the spectral progressive folk ‘Found’, with Jim Molyneux on grand piano and Elliott’s John Martyn-like guitar opens the second half of proceedings, leading into the bluesy tinged ‘Looking For Something That Isn’t There’ with its nagging title refrain and chugging bass. Accompanied by twin fiddles. Let It Out is another gently rippling acoustic number, Salter harmonising and subtly complementing on mandolin on a song about taking opportunities when they arise.

The album closes with the first of two co-writes, ‘All Comes Back’ a relaxed, slightly jazz-tinged airy love song co-penned by and featuring Lisbee Stainton on harmonies, while bassist Morris shares credits on ‘Friday Night’, a fast-slow uptempo celebration of good company and fine whisky, guitar and fiddle driving things along as he sings how “a wasted night is not a wasted night with friends.”

This may not prove the important breakthrough album to a winder audience, but it will certainly consolidate his current following and serve as a strong stepping stone to the next move forwards.

Mike Davies

Artist’s website: www.elliottmorris.co.uk

‘The End Of The World Blues’ – in the studio:


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